[ad_1]
Copyright of the image
AFP
The protestor's t-shirt reads: "I'm looking for my child"
A Madrid court dismissed a former doctor for stealing newborns from their mothers and providing them to infertile couples.
The court ruled that the crimes were committed by the 85-year-old gynecologist Eduardo Vela, but the charges were dropped because too much time had passed.
He is the first to be tried for illegal adoptions that took place during and after the fascist dictatorship of General Franco.
Thousands of other cases are suspected.
The Vela case was focused on Inés Madrigal, allegedly abducted in 1969.
After Franco's triumph in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, many children were removed from families considered by the fascist regime as Republican and entrusted to families considered more deserving.
Ms. Madrigal brought the most serious kidnapping charge against Vela in April 2012. But as she had not carried the case for 25 years after his first move to adulthood, in 1987, the case was punishable by years prescription.
She was in court for the verdict, but Vela was absent.
Ms. Madrigal came to say, "I am happy because it has been shown that I had been stolen by him."
She and her lawyer say she's going to appeal to the Supreme Court so that the doctor's crimes do not go unpunished.
Copyright of the image
Reuters
Inés Madrigal (center) met with other injured mothers at trial
Prosecutors had asked for an 11-year prison sentence for Vela.
The Provincial Court of Madrid has found three offenses: kidnapping, fraud on pregnancy and falsification of documents.
Copyright of the image
AFP
Vela – in a wheelchair – was not in court for the verdict
The Spanish scandal of stolen babies lasted for decades – from the first years of power to Franco.
It took a long time to surface because the Catholic Church and the medical profession are highly respected and the Spanish law did not require that the name of the biological mother be inscribed on the act. of birth.
The scandal is closely linked to the Church which, under Franco, occupied a prominent place in the Spanish social services, including hospitals, schools and homes for children.
The nuns and priests have established waiting lists for the prospective adoptive parents, while the doctors would have lied to the mothers about the fate of their children.
An amnesty law designed to ease the transition to democracy has contributed to concealment as courts and politicians have refused to investigate the trafficking of babies.
